The unique front page, screaming "COUP!" above the masthead, won the hearts of the judges, who selected it from entries from papers across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East.

The sixth annual Asia Media Awards, being held in Manila today in conjunction with Publish Asia, will also present another key prize to the Nation Multimedia Group. Photographer Kittinan Rodsupan won a Best in Photojournalism Award (sports photography category) for a picture of national footballer Suchao Nuchnoom published in Kom Chad Luek.

According to the organisers, the Best in Design Award assesses overall design, plus originality and content.

"The award will be presented to entries whose overall design, originality and content have achieved high levels of excellence. Entries will be judged not only on design but also on how design is used to project content. This includes the use of typography, photography, information graphics and colour," their press release said.

Leroy A Sylk, The Nation's design editor, said the front page was the face of a newspaper and provided an insight into its character. "We've always strived to make the front-page design bold and confident, which is what The Nation is, and at the same time reach out to our valuable readers.

"News of the coup broke rather late, which meant we had to come up fast with a design that would not only provide impact but actually scream. The importance of the event was such we knew that the design treatment had to be different compared to that of an ordinary day.

"Yes, we had to communicate to the reader that this wasn't business as usual, that this was a big deal, for better or for worse. So how could we look different yet maintain our bold, confident stance? We threw the conventional concept out the window, taking our bold treatment a step further.

"Shocking, not just grabbing, the reader's attention was uppermost in our minds, and we decided to go for the unorthodox and do something we had not done before. We splashed the word 'COUP!' at the very top of the page, in capitals and in a daring, dramatic red, placing it above the nameplate.

"And though that one word was enough to tell the whole story, we followed this up with a big sub-headline below the nameplate and a high-impact photo. This went hand-in-hand with the latest news and comments from our experienced reporters and editors.

"We had no fancy design up our sleeves. All we set out to do was to inform the reader in the most clear-cut terms of what was happening. And by mid-morning the next day, we knew we had succeeded, as our high-impact design helped portray the importance of the news."

For this year's Asia Media Awards, Ifra Asia introduced some new categories and the competition was open to all newspapers and magazines in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Ifra (www.ifra.com) is the world's leading organisation for newspaper and media publishing, with 10 locations worldwide. It has been registered as an association since 1961 with headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, and acts as the platform for decision makers from the newspaper industry.